Margo Kane

Margo Gwendolyn Kane (born August 21, 1951) is a Cree-Saulteaux performing artist and writer known for her solo-voice or monodrama works Moonlodge and Confessions of an Indian Cowboy, as well as her work with Full Circle First Nations Performance.

Early life Margo Kane was the only First Nations child adopted into a white working-class home. Her adoptive father had remarried three times. Kane grew up with an abusive and overly strict stepmother, and eventually found herself alienated from her family later on.

Kane found an interest in dance at an early age. She was an honours student in school; however, her teenage years led to severe depression. She has described her early life as having a sense of "cultural schizophrenia". Kane remembers that she knew she was native before her father had even told her. Of her first encounters with the children bussed to her school from the residential school, Kane recalls that "we just stared at each other like cows in the field. Just looking wide-eyes, wondering who was going to make the first move.". By the time Kane graduated high school she had, what she describes as an "inferiority complex".

By the age of twenty, Kane had taken up residence on Skid Row, was living off social assistance, and was dependent on drugs and alcohol. Eventually, Kane was able to disentangle herself from her substance abuses, and move away from Skid Row and enroll in Edmonton's Grant McEwan College (MacEwan University) for performing arts; it was here that she excelled in dance, acting, and singing. Her performance at McEwan College led to scholarships with Banff School of Fine Arts and Circle in the Square Theatre Company in New York.

Acting, teaching, and cultural work Margo received national attention during the late 1970s with the play The Ecstasy of Rita Joe by George Ryga, performed at Citadel Theatre in Edmonton Alberta. During 1982, Kane toured with Prairie Theatre Exchange's production of The Ecstasy of Rita Joe. Margo has also involved herself with a national youth caravan which brought theatre to small Native communities across Canada.

During the 1980s, Kane became involved with the National Native Role Model Program, which highlights the accomplishments of ordinary First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Youth. Through this program, Kane went to Prisons, recovery centres, and group homes. It was around this time that she landed a small part on the CBC's First Nations TV series, Spirit Bay, in which she was cast as the school teacher.

Margo became the "first Native artistic director of Spirit Song Native Theatre School in the 1980s". Her performances blend traditional ritual with storytelling, song, poetry, and dance. A list of her most notable works can be found below.

Kane won a Canadian Achievement Award from the National Capital Commission in Ottawa in 1991.

Full Circle: First Nations Performance Full Circle: First Nations Performance is Kane's own theatre company; it was established in 1992 by Kane, who fulfills the role of managing and artistic director. The mandate for the theatre company is to "create opportunities for Aboriginal artists, writers and performers to express the reality of First Nations experiences and to work in harmony with First Nations traditions while engaging modern, interdisciplinary theatrical techniques". The Theatre Company has also proven itself a leader among other theatre companies through its various workshops, training projects, and performance opportunities.

Plot Agnes is a girl snatched from her home and family by Child Welfare government services. She grows up in a series of foster homes, apart from the warmth and support of her family and her cultural community. Popular media depicting Aboriginal people both entice and repel Agnes. Later, in the 1960s she joins many others hitchhiking across America and in that journey she begins to discover the authentic voice inside her that had been silenced but never lost.

Writings and appearances

Plays and performance art Moonlodge – writer, actress - Premiered at Women In View Festival 1990 Memories Springing/Waters Singing (Banff Centre, 1992) – environmental installation/performance piece Princess Minnehaha at the Tikki-Tikki Lounge (Vancouver 1992) Confessions of an Indian Cowboy – writer, actor The River-Home (Vancouver 1996) Performance Art Installation.

Appearances Running Brave (1983) - Catherine Spirit Bay (1985) - school teacher Higher Ground (1988) - Mala Bremer Powwow Highway (1989) - Imogen Good Things Too (1996) Dreamkeeper (2003) - Cross Clan Mother On the Corner (2003) - Dolly Unnatural & Accidental (2006) - Mavis Rustic Oracle (2019) - Iris